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Text of the page (random words):
development is essentially at a pragmatic level for needs and wants he is unable to use language as a method of organizing the world around him 3 global developmental delay his delays are associated with insults to the brain in early life with this in mind he demonstrates strength and potential age appropriate performance when materials are presented in a manner that allows him to process and comprehend the information that is being offered posted by stephanie at 1 00 am no comments saturday november 3 2012 postscript five hereditary elliptocytosis i never knew there were so many variations of testing that could be performed on a person s blood but i rest assured that the healthcare professionals at nemours alfred i dupont hospital for children are the most thorough i have ever met as i mentioned previously both ian and alec dealt with anemia following their homecoming from haiti and having them seen by a hematologist was on our checklist of things to do while in the united states on furlough ministry thankfully i was so impressed by the quality of care we received during our office visit the appointment was quite lengthy considering that we had to cover history and review medical records from several different countries for not one but two patients however our hematologist and another doctor in training gave us their undivided attention for as long as it took they also coordinated the blood draw so that we could immediately proceed with that step on the same day much to our boys chagrin to make a long story short alec was diagnosed with a blood disorder called hereditary elliptocytosis this while sounding rather scary should actually affect him very little throughout his lifetime in fact the specialist told us that most people who have the condition are unaware of it unless they become ill jaundice gall and spleen issues are a few things we need to watch for just in case we re grateful for such excellent medical attention and for this piece of knowledge that will help us be that much more aware in the future as alec grows most of all we are thankful to god for two healthy boys knowing that the great physician is the one responsible for healing both their bodies and souls posted by stephanie at 12 49 am no comments friday september 21 2012 postscript four neuropsych coc a brief update regarding a few areas in which we are currently investing time and effort neuropsychological evaluation we feel very blessed to have been referred to the center for developmental adoption medicine where we are working with dr davida harlem to identify and address our son s cognitive needs it sets our hearts at ease to know that the full purpose of this practice revolves around adoption initially pedro and i traveled for a lengthy meeting in which we were able to share our story and areas of concern for our son though we had already spoken of this many times together at home somehow it was encouraging to hear my husband s perspective as shared with a third person we felt very comfortable with dr harlem and our son seems to as well so far he has had two morning sessions of cognitive testing basically this involves intervals of question and answer times for as long as his attention span lasts we are currently waiting to find out whether one more session will be needed as dr harlem organizes the results of his testing in conjunction with the results of his speech and hearing tests new certificates of citizenship this week we also sent off for new certificates of citizenship for ian and alec since their names were changed via re adoption the process itself is fairly straightforward fill out the form enclose a copy of the court order and their original coc unfortunately it is quite an expense 345 per child but we feel strongly that it is very important for our sons to have every piece of paperwork they might ever need to validate their identity and us citizenship thus we took a deep breath wrote the check and sent off those original precious papers we struggled to obtain in the first place hematology appointments bloodwork for both ian and alec revealed anemia upon their homecoming in 2010 and we have been monitoring it ever since we hope that this visit with a us hematologist might clear up some lingering questions and it would be wonderful to be told that they are now at normal levels their appointments are scheduled for next thursday september 27 posted by stephanie at 3 55 pm no comments saturday august 4 2012 postscript three testing quite recently we have found ourselves entering a new chapter of life with one of our sweet boys from haiti to protect his privacy i won t share every detail but i do feel it is important to add yet another postscript to our haitian adoption story i do so because it appears that this blog continues to be a resource for families on a similar journey in 2 corinthians 1 4 5 we are told that god comforts us in all our tribulation that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by god i hope that by adding a few new chapters to our story we can do just that encourage or comfort others who may experience similar situations now or in the future i should preface this by saying that we know of adoptive families very near and dear to us who are going through struggles so much greater than ours with their precious children our hearts ache along with theirs and it is not my intention to overstate our situation which sometimes seems quite minor in comparison yet it is through walking beside them that we have been encouraged to pursue any and all resources testings evaluations etc while our child is still young and while we have the opportunities being stateside it is our hope that in so doing we will give him the best springboard for his future in every way possible to make a long story somewhat short we have become concerned about two issues primarily the first is what we have called cognitive connections or lack thereof and which i would describe as moments when we are talking directly to our son in simple terms and receive a blank look of confusion or a response which is completely out of context to the conversation along with that i might add some linguistic concerns which at this point we do not know whether they are related directly to cognition or language for instance learning colors which his brother at almost the same age knows perfectly whereas this child calls every color red however if we point to an object which is yellow he can then point to another object of the same color and say like that car is yellow but if we ask him five minutes later he will say the same object once again is red the second and more pressing concern we have is regarding our son s struggle with impulse control and cause effect thinking while we have certainly seen improvement in this over the past two years for instance he usually now will not take candy or food without asking whereas one or two years ago he might consistently try to take a handful when we are not looking there are times when all thought of consequence seems to fly out the window often this happens in a context where he is with peers two examples just in the past week would be 1 our current home sits on the parking lot of a church and the little boys know they are not allowed outside without an older sibling or adult however when a same age cousin came to play our son immediately acted upon her suggestion to take the wagon out into the parking lot without supervision and without thought of danger 2 this example is on the lighter side but still exemplifies the dilemma both little boys were taking a bath and i had instructed this son not to play with the bar of soap and to put it away in the dish i watched while he obeyed then left the room but remained within earshot i heard this son tell his brother not to play with the soap because mommy had said so but apparently his brother did so anyway rather than act on what he knew was right regardless of his brother s choice when i re entered the room the son in question guiltily tried to submerge and hide the soap he had back in his own hands as i mentioned earlier dear ones in our lives are struggling with extremely difficult adoption situations and some are due to the ramifications of older child ren reaping the tragic consequences of impulse control issues we hope and pray that early intervention may allow us to protect our son in this area but at the same time we know that early biological factors drug and alcohol exposure nutritional deprivation victimize children even as early as the womb truthfully i did not know where to begin with seeking the help we might need so i reached out to another adoptive mom whose blog was often a resource to me and received from her the recommendation to start with a neuropsychological evaluation of our child of course i had to do some googling to find out what that even meant it was helpful to me to realize we were not talking about psychological testing as much as evaluating cognitive learning processes however i wanted to be able to work with someone who specifically had knowledge regarding adoption issues and graciously god allowed me to stumble upon a nearby hospital which actually has an international adoption department i wrote for information and in return received a phone call from a wonderful lady who listened recorded and recommended the next steps to take last week my husband and i met with the director of a center dedicated specifically to developmental adoption issues in future appointments she will provide testing for our son and she will coordinate directly with the hospital as well she encouraged us that there are many different pieces to the puzzle and we need to try to find them in an organized fashion her recommendation was to begin with a hearing evaluation followed by a speech evaluation she explained that with international adoption some of the language cognition issues could be as simple as a hearing problem wouldn t that be nice we will find out soon enough as we received a call yesterday alerting us to a cancellation on monday which allows us to have him tested in these two areas immediately i am so grateful to god for opening the right doors for us though there are overwhelming moments when i feel that the next few months stretch out as a blur of doctor s appointments for us a couple of our other children also need some specialized medical care prior to returning to chile i am reminded of his perfect provision and timing and that just as all the hard work prior to adoption was worth it these issues pertaining to our son s health and well being will be even more so posted by stephanie at 1 57 pm 1 comment saturday may 5 2012 postscript two pictures my postscript series is on hold temporarily as we are seeking to legalize the boys new birth certificates for use in chile upon our return so far they have received a state seal from delaware and currently we hope and pray their certificates are in the hands of the us department of state for their sign and seal once that is completed we must send their birth certificates to the chilean consulate in philadelphia for their legalization the final few steps take place in chile and most likely we will wait until january to get those accomplished we are required to get another stamp at the ministry of exterior thankfully this one is free and then official translations at the same office unfortunately these are not free last but not least we submit their super stamped birth certificates to the civil registry office in chile in order to receive official chilean birth certificates which state that the boys were born overseas so i ve never quite understood the significance but oh well so while we wait for the next chapter in this series i leave you with a few beautiful snapshots taken of my little guys this week ian is in the blue sweatshirt and alec is in the yellow they are absolutely loving the warmer weather and especially the enormous yard god has provided for us during this first half of furlough in michigan my two 4 year olds brothers and best buds hanging out at the barn posted by stephanie at 9 38 pm 1 comment thursday march 15 2012 postscript one re adoption it has been over one year since i last posted to this blog and over two years since our boys finally came home the purpose of this postscript is to record a final chapter of paperwork that is taking place now that our family has returned stateside for a year of furlough ministry in the us while i know the ins and outs of adoption are often changing my hope is that these details may be helpful to someone else who is or may soon be in our shoes to summarize our goals this year were to 1 re adopt our sons in our home state of delaware 2 obtain united states birth certificates for both boys 3 request new social security cards 4 obtain new certificates of citizenship and 5 apply for new us passports for each one reflecting their new names step 1 delaware re adoption through a yahoo support group for delaware adoptive parents i learned that we must contact a clerk within the county courthouse for a packet of documents required for re adoption these documents were to be typed out exactly the same as the originals but with our sons information inserted they then had to be signed and notarized and submitted in person with a fee and accompanying documents such as the boys original birth certificates visas and adoption decrees from haiti with english translations less than two weeks later the re adoption decree was printed and ready for pick up we praise god for guiding us through this process and for delaware s making simple what in other state is often a costly and tedious affair our purpose in re adopting the boys despite their already having a full and final adoption in haiti was first and foremost to provide them with access to a us birth certificate to confirm their citizenship and allow them to obtain copies as needed in the future up to this point we have only had one handwritten haitian birth certificate for each child we wanted to make certain that ian and alec will have any and all documentation available so as to protect them from unforeseen complications in the future step 2 us birth certificates once the adoption decree was in hand we spoke to a contact at delaware vital statistics about our situation she told us to call back in two weeks which we did and at which time she confirmed that the boys certificates were in the system we sent payment via personal check and with a self addressed stamped envelope receiving shortly thereafter our sons delaware birth certificates in the mail we did learn that future copies of their birth certificates will always need to be requested this way as it is not possible to use an online service such as vitalchek due to their birthplace being outside the united states step 3 social security cards with new us birth certificates and re adoption papers in hand i...